As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the more recent categories of computer systems is the portable or “palmtop” computer system, or personal digital assistant (PDA). A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and is thus “palm-sized.” By virtue of their size, palmtop computer systems are also lightweight and so are exceptionally portable and convenient. As a result, palmtops are readily carried about in a briefcase or purse, and some palmtops are compact enough to fit into a person's pocket. Further development of PDAs has enabled their use for portable, and now wireless, access to computer networks and the World Wide Web. The portability and convenience makes such devices ideal for such wireless access when the user is away from a wired workstation.
On the other hand, because they are relatively small, the displays on PDAs or palmtops are necessarily limited in their ability to present information from many websites and the speed of entering information into an interactive window is necessarily slow. Most limiting, however, is the narrow communication band-width currently available to these convenient devices.
The area in which PDAs and palmtops excel is in the area of personal information management (PIM). Most operating systems in palmtops are extremely well adapted, incorporating personal information managers (PIMs) in the basic collection of permanent applications.
On wireless PDAs, the integration of PIM data with the world-wide-web is tightly concentrated in a few areas, such as synchronization of a personal calendar with a web-based calendar or in placing a phone call. Current web browsing mechanisms on wireless PDAs also burden the user with deciding what kind of information is needed, where to retrieve information, how to aggregate information from multiple websites, and how to utilize the information to aid in a given task. These limitations are further aggravated by limited bandwidth and lack of adequate input methods.
What is required, then, is a mechanism for providing a better Internet experience for a user that relieves user input demands and increases output effectiveness. Such a mechanism should efficiently use the limited bandwidth available between wireless devices and their web portals, whether implemented as proprietary cellular networks or other, non-proprietary, portals.